איך נדע לזהות את המשיח כשהוא יגיע? | הרב קובלסקי חלק ב׳

In the second conversation with Rabbi Kowalski, we tried to understand how the Sages describe the period before the redemption, and what is required of a person who seeks to maintain faith, stability, and moral capacity in a world where old structures are falling apart. The conversation began with the concept of “chutzah yasga,” not only as a lack of politeness, but as the loss of the ability to be nullified in the face of something greater than oneself. Rabbi Kowalski connects the weakening of respect for parents, elders, teachers, and people in general, with a perception in which a person no longer feels a commitment to anyone but himself. From this, we returned to the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza and examined the destruction of the house not as an event that began with abstract hatred, but as a real human failure: a person is humiliated in the eyes of the public, and none of those present stop the humiliation. A central part of the chapter touched on the claim that every Jew is part of one soul. According to this perception, the encounter with another person is not accidental, and his fall or success is not foreign to me. The question is not only whether I refrain from rejoicing in his failure, but whether I am truly able to rejoice in the good he has received. We also discussed the words of the Sages: “We have no one to lean on but our Father in heaven.” Rabbi Kowalski suggests reading the sentence not as a declaration of despair, but as a premonition: not to wait for the systems to collapse before turning to God. In the last part, we studied chapter 2 of Psalms, “Why Did the Gentiles Feel,” as a chapter on anxiety, faith, and inner speech. The chapter seeks to move from technical religiosity to emotional connection, from prayer said out of habit to actual conversation with God, and from personal survival to responsibility toward the entire nation.